Pestiviruses and flaviviruses belong to the Flaviviridae family of viruses along with hepatitis C virus. The pestivirus genus includes bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), classical swine fever virus (CSFV, also called hog cholera virus) and border disease virus (BDV) of sheep (Moennig, V. et al. Adv. Vir. Res. 1992, 41, 53–98). Pestivirus infections of domesticated livestock (cattle, pigs and sheep) cause significant economic losses worldwide. BVDV causes mucosal disease in cattle and is of significant economic importance to the livestock industry (Meyers, G. and Thiel, H.-J., Advances in Virus Research, 1996, 47, 53–118; Moennig V., et al, Adv. Vir. Res. 1992, 41, 53–98).
Human pestiviruses have not been as extensively characterized as the animal pestiviruses. However, serological surveys indicate considerable pestivirus exposure in humans. Pestivirus infections in man have been implicated in several diseases including congenital brain injury, infantile gastroenteritis and chronic diarrhea in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) positive patients. M. Giangaspero et al., Arch. Virol. Suppl., 1993, 7, 53–62; M. Giangaspero et al., Int. J. Std. Aids, 1993, 4 (5): 300–302.
The flavivirus genus includes more than 68 members separated into groups on the basis of serological relatedness (Calisher et al., J. Gen. Virol, 1993, 70, 37–43). Clinical symptoms vary and include fever, encephalitis and hemorrhagic fever. Fields Virology, Editors: Fields, B. N., Knipe, D. M., and Howley, P. M., Lippincott-Raven Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa., 1996, Chapter 31, 931–959. Flaviviruses of global concern that are associated with human disease include the dengue hemorrhagic fever viruses (DHF), yellow fever virus, shock syndrome and Japanese encephalitis virus. Halstead, S. B., Rev. Infect. Dis., 1984, 6, 251–264; Halstead, S. B., Science, 239:476–481, 1988; Monath, T. P., New Eng. J. Med., 1988, 319, 641–643.
Examples of antiviral agents that have been identified as active against the flavivirus or pestiviruses include:                (1) interferon and ribavirin (Battaglia, A. M. et al., Ann. Pharmacother, 2000, 34, 487–494); Berenguer, M. et al. Antivir. Ther., 1998, 3 (Suppl. 3), 125–136);        (2) Substrate-based NS3 protease inhibitors (Attwood et al., Antiviral peptide derivatives, PCT WO 98/22496, 1998; Attwood et al., Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy 1999, 10, 259–273; Attwood et al., Preparation and use of amino acid derivatives as anti-viral agents, German Patent Pub. DE 19914474; Tung et al. Inhibitors of serine proteases, particularly hepatitis C virus NS3 protease, PCT WO 98/17679), including alphaketoamides and hydrazinoureas, and inhibitors that terminate in an electrophile such as a boronic acid or phosphonate (Llinas-Brunet et al, Hepatitis C inhibitor peptide analogues, PCT WO 99/07734).        (3) Non-substrate-based inhibitors such as 2,4,6-trihydroxy-3-nitro-benzamide derivatives (Sudo K. et al., Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 1997, 238, 643–647; Sudo K. et al. Antiviral Chemistry and Chemotherapy, 1998, 9, 186), including RD3-4082 and RD3-4078, the former substituted on the amide with a 14 carbon chain and the latter processing a para-phenoxyphenyl group;        (4) Thiazolidine derivatives which show relevant inhibition in a reverse-phase HPLC assay with an NS3/4A fusion protein and NS5A/5B substrate (Sudo K. et al., Antiviral Research, 1996, 32, 9–18), especially compound RD-1-6250, possessing a fused cinnamoyl moiety substituted with a long alkyl chain, RD4 6205 and RD4 6193;        (5) Thiazolidines and benzanilides identified in Kakiuchi N. et al. J. EBS Letters 421, 217–220; Takeshita N. et al. Analytical Biochemistry, 1997, 247, 242–246;        (6) A phenan-threnequinone possessing activity against protease in a SDS-PAGE and autoradiography assay isolated from the fermentation culture broth of Streptomyces sp., Sch 68631 (Chu M. et al., Tetrahedron Letters, 1996, 37, 7229–7232), and Sch 351633, isolated from the fungus Penicillium griscofuluum, which demonstrates activity in a scintillation proximity assay (Chu M. et al., Bioorganic and Medicinal Chemistry Letters 9, 1949–1952);        (7) Selective NS3 inhibitors based on the macromolecule elgin c, isolated from leech (Qasim M. A. et al., Biochemistry, 1997, 36, 1598–1607);        (8) Helicase inhibitors (Diana G. D. et al., Compounds, compositions and methods for treatment of hepatitis C, U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,358; Diana G. D. et al., Piperidine derivatives, pharmaceutical compositions thereof and their use in the treatment of hepatitis C, PCT WO 97/36554);        (9) Polymerase inhibitors such as nucleotide analogues, gliotoxin (Ferrari R. et al. Journal of Virology, 1999, 73, 1649–1654), and the natural product cerulenin (Lohmann V. et al., Virology, 1998, 249, 108–118);        (10) Antisense phosphorothioate oligodeoxynucleotides (S-ODN) complementary to sequence stretches in the 5′ non-coding region (NCR) of the virus (Alt M. et al., Hepatology, 1995, 22, 707–717), or nucleotides 326–348 comprising the 3′ end of the NCR and nucleotides 371–388 located in the core coding region of the IICV RNA (Alt M. et al., Archives of Virology, 1997, 142, 589–599; Galderisi U. et al., Journal of Cellular Physiology, 1999, 181, 251–257);        (11) Inhibitors of IRES-dependent translation (Ikeda N et al., Agent for the prevention and treatment of hepatitis C, Japanese Patent Pub. JP-08268890; Kai Y. et al. Prevention and treatment of viral diseases, Japanese Patent Pub. JP-10101591);        (12) Nuclease-resistant ribozymes (Maccjak, D. J. et al., Hepatology 1999, 30, abstract 995); and        (13) Other miscellaneous compounds including 1-amino-alkylcyclohexanes (U.S. Pat. No. 6,034,134 to Gold et al.), alkyl lipids (U.S. Pat. No. 5,922,757 to Chojkier et al.), vitamin E and other antioxidants (U.S. Pat. No. 5,922,757 to Chojkier et al.), squalene, amantadine, bile acids (U.S. Pat. No. 5,846,964 to Ozeki et al.), N-(phosphonoacetyl)-L-aspartic acid, (U.S. Pat. No. 5,830,905 to Diana et al.), benzenedicarboxamides (U.S. Pat. No. 5,633,388 to Diana et al.), polyadenylic acid derivatives (U.S. Pat. No. 5,496,546 to Wang et al.), 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine (U.S. Pat. No. 5,026,687 to Yarchoan et al.), and benzimidazoles (U.S. Pat. No. 5,891,874 to Colacino et al.).        
In view of the severity of diseases associated with pestiviruses and flaviviruses, and their pervasiveness in animal and man, it is an object of the present invention to provide a compound, method and composition for the treatment of a host infected with flavivirus or pestivirus.